A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: 1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; 2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; 3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; 4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; 5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; 6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
Our sins are more easily remembered than our good deeds.
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
Betray a friend, and you’ll often find you have ruined yourself.
Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
We are just statistics, born to consume resources.
Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
A man’s character is his fate.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
The greatest pleasure of life is love.
He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.
It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.
Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.
What makes a man a ‘sophist’ is not his faculty, but his moral purpose.
He whom loves touches not walks in darkness.
The mob is the mother of tyrants.
We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Men should strive to think much and know little.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.
Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.
The traitor rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
Love is a kind of warfare.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.
If anyone says that the best life of all is to sail the sea, and then adds that I must not sail upon a sea where shipwrecks are a common occurrence and there are often sudden storms that sweep the helmsman in an adverse direction, I conclude that this man, although he lauds navigation, really forbids me to launch my ship.
Applicants for wisdom do what I have done: inquire within.
A A good deed is like peeing in your pants. Everyone knows you did it, but only you can feel it’s warmth. is like peeing in your pants. Everyone knows you did it, but only you can feel it’s warmth.
Give heed to the appearance of neighbourhoods, a flourishing country should show its prosperity.
A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.
All states in the world, large or small, are cities of Heaven, and all people, young or old, honorable or humble, are its subjects.